The Market Police from Boston Review. In the neoliberal project, state power is needed to enforce market relations. But because democratic politics can demand broader economic planning, the site of that power must be hidden from politics.

In spite of clear popular support, Iceland's new crowd-sourced constitution was recently killed by politicians. An ex-member of the constitutional council sheds some light on what happened - and why there might still be some hope for this unique experiment. (Thorvaldur Gylfason)

What the future holds in store and what will be the fate of the bill for a new constitution is hard to say at this point in time. But what is evident is that the battle of “who owns Iceland” is being fought and is at its high water mark. There is much at stake. (Thorhildur Thorleifsdottir)

This Saturday, a year after a Constitutional Council has written a draft constitution with the help of citizens, voters agreed this draft should be the basis for a new constitution. This writing experiment stands out for its surprisingly democratic process, but a closer look reveals some of its limitations. (Giulia Dessi)

Bitcoin is already transforming the financial industry. The technology behind it – Blockchain – has great potential to revolutionize many other areas of our lives too. In my talk at re:publica 17, I explore Blockchain applications under way in the fields of nature, democracy and work.

Blockchain technology changes more than the financial industry. Scientists have proposed revolutionary concepts for managing our democracy, forests and other natural systems as well as the way we work. Discussing potential benefits and risks, Thomas Wagenknecht introduces “Futarchy” and similar DAO governance models to change political systems, “terra0” which proposes a self-owned augmented forest and a concept to compensate founders and employees.

People fighting for survival experiment with their own path to democracy in the Middle East. Not just another effort to carve out an ethnic niche, but to establish a multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracy.

Where exactly is the maximum tolerable level of surveillance, beyond which it becomes oppressive? We must consider surveillance a kind of social pollution, and limit the surveillance impact of each new digital system just as we limit the environmental impact of physical construction...

What kind of message are we sending about the viability these democratic ideals—about openness, transparency, public participation, public collaboration? How hollow must American exhortations to democracy sound to foreign ears? Mr Snowden may be responsible for having exposed this hypocrisy, for having betrayed the thug omertà at the heart of America’s domestic democracy-suppression programme, but the hypocrisy is America’s.

What the European democracy needs is a real tax revolution, a kind of New Deal or a Marshall Plan, something like a social movement and maybe a step aside from the structures that were designed to exclude it. (By Etienne Balibar)

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